Tough day for Gaylord on slopes

January 15, 2001|By MIKE DUNN

BOYNE CITY - Things did not go the way that Gaylord ski coach Lou Habryl hoped on Wednesday. The Blue Devil skiers, coming off an impressive victory in their season-opening tournament at Treetops last week, had a subpar performance at Boyne Highlands.

The boys finished 11th out of 13 teams competing in the Harbor Petoskey Invitational and the girls came in ninth.

The morning running of the giant slalom competition didn't go too badly. The boys were fifth and the girls were in the middle of the pack. "I was kind of optimistic at that point," Habryl said.

After that, though, things began to go south in a hurry. Three of the Gaylord guys were disqualified in their slalom runs in the afternoon, one for losing a ski and the other two for blowing the gate. As a result, the Blue Devils finished dead last in the slalom and 11th in the meet

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"It was a terrible afternoon," Habryl said. "There were eight disqualifications and three of them were from Gaylord."

The girls didn't finish as highly as Habryl would have liked, but they did some good things. They were without the services of one of their top skiers which cost them some points in the scoring.

Carly Arthurs came in 12th in the giant slalom out of a field of more than 70 competitors, which was the best showing for a Gaylord skier on the day. MaryLou Habryl came in 28th in the same event.

"The girls are young," Habryl said. "They're still learning."

The best finish for the boys came in the giant slalom, where Zach Hansmann earned 16th place in a combined time of 1:03.91 and Kip Driver earned an 18th-place time of 1:03.98.

Habryl is hoping that the experience at Boyne Highlands can be a stepping stone for his team. "We have nobody to point to but ourselves," the coach said. "We have to make some adjustments and practice harder than we have been."